29 out of 29 people found this review helpful.
Industry Standard in Presentation
Date of Review: Nov 4, 2008
The Bottom Line: Highly recommended for all businesses and students for creating professional presentations. It's a powerful program with wide possibilities.
Microsoft PowerPoint is essentially a presentation or slideshow program. It s usually found as part of the Microsoft Office Suite but can also be purchased individually. Chances are if you ve seen a computerized slideshow, you ve seen PowerPoint in action. While slideshows were the basic premise for PowerPoint it does have much more versatile applications which I ll explain a little further below.
Background
The basic version of PowerPoint was created in 1987. At that time it was used to print overhead transparencies. It was quickly snapped up by Microsoft and in 1990 the first Windows Edition was released. I got my first introduction to PowerPoint around 1996, and was instantly impressed to see a projector, hooked up to a computer displaying a slideshow. I quickly got my own copy and for lack of money started using it to print my own transparencies. The program is so widely used now in business and in schools that it s incorporated in all but the basic edition of Microsoft Office.
What it Does
Basically PowerPoint makes slideshows. You can create a series of slides to display on your own computer, send a slideshow to others, or hook your computer up to a projector and display it on a screen. You can also choose to run an automatic show that just runs by itself, use mouse clicks or other device to progress from slide to slide. Then there are hyperlinks (like on the internet) which you can use to set up interactive options such as a menu and allow user to navigate their own way around.
Ease of Use
Getting started is relatively simple. It s especially easy if you ve used Microsoft Office applications such as Word or Excel in the past because the menus and commands are similar. But even with no prior knowledge, I used to run a one hour tutorial that could get anyone up and started with making a basic slideshow. Microsoft makes things easier with a large selection of designs and templates that add an instant professional look for anyone getting started. Basically all you need to know is how to search through the menus and a basic understanding of operations such as copy and paste and you re all set.
The layout templates make it easy to organize your content. For instance you can pick a template that contains a headline, a picture and bullet points. All you have to do is tell PowerPoint where your picture is located on your computer and type in your text. All the formatting is then done for you.
There are a multitude of design templates already built in that can add a classy look for even the most basic of users. If you re a little more advanced there are infinite configurations built in for originality while it s not too difficult to incorporate your own designs and pictures.
Spicing Things Up
You can really add extra quality to your presentations through some of PowerPoint s many options. Firstly there are page transitions. You can choose to set a timer for each page that tells the program when to progress to the next slide. For example you can set all your slides to display for 30 seconds. Then there s the style of the page transition e.g. fade in/fade out, dissolve, fly in/fly out. All of these techniques are really simple and just take one click on the right menu.
My favorite option however is the animation. You can use this to make you text or pictures fly in and out in all manner of styles. There are a good bunch of options to choose from or more advanced users can get down to drawing custom paths. Nothing gets your audience excited more than seeing a picture come flying in from the corner, bouncing around the screen or spinning away. All of these are again simple one click features.
Non Conventional Uses
PowerPoint is primarily for use as a visual accompaniment to a verbal presentation. However you can just set up an automated slideshow to music if you want and let it run on a computer or email it to your friends. Sending a presentation to another person however does require a little advanced knowledge if that person doesn t have the same version of PowerPoint. But there are options built in to allow a PowerPoint presentation to run by itself or turn it into a web page. You can also record your voice to accompany the slides if you don t want to stand up in front of a group.
The most powerful use I ve found for PowerPoint is in creating my own programs. I don t have any programming knowledge, but I ve been able to use it create games such as a Spelling Bee or even Shoot-Ups. What makes this so easy is the use of hyperlinks. The basic premise is that you create a slide that has multiple options. For example a slide can have two pictures. If the user clicks on picture 1 it jumps to one slide, if he clicks on picture 2 it jumps to another slide. You can even set up a timer, that once expired will force it to jump to another slide. The options from hyperlinks are not difficult to grasp. It took me a while because I played around and figured these ideas out myself. But I was able to teach this information to others within a half day.
If you ever used your schoolbooks to create cartoon animations you can do that with PowerPoint too. You could create 100 slides with slightly changing images then set them to transition at a fast speed. The result is an instant cartoon and you didn t even need to learn the more advanced (and more expensive) Adobe Flash to do it.
Programming
PowerPoint operates within a user friendly or WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) interface. You can see exactly what you re doing and what you re getting in a simple and practical way. However if you re a programmer you can get more advanced with Macros or Visual Basic. I ve played around a little with this when I couldn t figure out how to do something only to discover later that there s a simple WYSIWYG answer to everything later. At the same time I ve never studied Visual Basic to know if I m missing out on anything.
The Transition to 2007
Microsoft released the 2007 version in line with the rest of its Office 2007 package. There really aren t too many changes though. One change is the ability to preview animations as you work, which to be honest was just as simple before. The other changes are really clean ups or aesthetic. If you re versed in previous versions of PowerPoint, you might like me, find the whole menu reorganization a little frustrating. New users might find it easier to get into this way however as it s a change consistent to the whole Office 2007 Suite. I like to stay in tune and up to date with changes but to be honest I d be perfectly happy still using the 2003 version.
Limitations
For the basic user who wants to knock together some slides, add animations, pictures and videos there s nothing really I can say in terms of limitations. PowerPoint can do everything you ll ever need it to do.
My biggest issue is in the transferability of slideshows from one computer to another. There are several compatibility options in the save menu. For example it s relatively simple to save a PowerPoint 2007 file as a 2003 file. If you used advanced options such as animation, you ll need to make sure that they re available in an earlier version. I ve never accounted any issues transferring from 2007 to 2003 but earlier versions do lack many of the features. The problem arises more when you have files attached such as a soundtrack or a video. There are other compatibility options but I ve always experienced issues trying to send my more advanced PowerPoint programs in other formats. I m sure there are ways around the issues I ve encountered, but I do consider myself an advanced user and find the headaches a little frustrating. The transition to web page is especially frustrating.
I ve also encountered issues with multi-tasking. For example, if you re playing a music track in the background then decide to add sound effects, the music stops. It can t play both at the same time. There is a solution. If the music file is embedded, it will play fine but this can increase your file size dramatically.
I ve encountered a few other technical issues, but my complaints are petty because I m really getting beyond the capacity and purpose of PowerPoint. It would be nice if PowerPoint could become a fully integrated interactive program designer and I m sure it will in later releases, but for now I ll have to develop my programming skills.
Recommendations
PowerPoint 2007 gets my highest recommendation because it s a simple but effective and powerful program to use. It s become an industry standard for creating presentations and is almost universally used in businesses and schools. Its ease of use and professional look are its greatest assets.
For more advanced users I recommend exploring this program a little more for its interactive capabilities. You can create self contained programs quickly and easily. There s definitely a lot more to PowerPoint than first meets the eye.
If you have the 2003 edition I really don t see any particular reason to upgrade. There really haven t been any major additions. You might want to just wait for the next release instead.
